What is Customer Service?
Customer service is the assistance that a company offers to its customers before or after purchasing or using a company's products or services. Customer service includes tasks such as offering products, troubleshooting problems, handling complaints, and answering general questions.
Every interaction with a customer is an opportunity to grow your business. Excellent customer service is a competitive advantage that ensures brand loyalty and recognition.
Customer Service History
To better understand the importance and changing nature of customer service, it is necessary to understand the shift from single-channel to multi-channel service as a key aspect of business success.
Before the widespread use of the telephone, customer service was mostly provided in person or by mail. The invention of the telephone has given companies a new opportunity to stand out from the competition by providing better and faster customer service over the phone.
In the 1960s, the first call centers appeared, which evolved into customer service departments. With a dedicated customer service department, companies were able to leverage the latest technology and service strategies, such as providing consistent training to all employees interacting with customers.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, the internet created many more opportunities for customer service – shopping channels. Not only could customers ask questions, but they could also visit the company's website, send emails, or interact with the latest technology, such as chatbots.
Over the past decade, social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have become another channel through which customers can interact with businesses. Recently, new technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) are rapidly expanding customer service capabilities.
Customer Service vs. Customer Experience – What's the Difference?
Customer service is a part of customer experience (CX), which is a broader term that encompasses all customer touchpoints with a company, including sales, marketing, training, customer service, and more.Companies often measure their customers' experiences to gauge emotional, physical, and other interactions with the brand. Customer service, or customer care, plays an important role in the overall customer experience, helping or hurting a company in its attempts to establish a positive connection with customers.
The Business Value of Customer Service
It's hard to overstate the importance of customer service in both the B2B and B2C segments. Benefits of a Positive Customer Service Experience
- Formation of a base of brand supporters. Satisfied customers are loyal customers who come back for more. Another advantage is that it is significantly less costly to retain existing customers through quality service than to attract new ones.
- Increase profits. Better customer service can increase sales of products and services, leading to higher profits.
- Increasing the competitiveness of the brand. Some companies stand out from their competitors, even if they offer the same products, thanks to the highest level of service with a personal touch and consideration of all customer wishes.
However, it is not only the business benefits that are important, but also the high costs that poor service entails. Even one bad customer experience, such as a slow online service where a customer can't get a quick and clear answer to their question or gets the wrong advice, can lead to a loss of loyalty and trust. Such a customer may not contact you again, but become a loyal customer of your competitor.
And if a customer talks about their frustration on social media, it can cause even more damage to the brand and lead to further losses.
Keys to Customer Service Success
To pleasantly surprise your customers, you must exceed their expectations and provide a superior service experience. To meet the minimum customer expectations, you need the following.
Use all kinds of customer interactions
Ensure seamless transitions between all service points: digital channels, contact centers, and in-person interactions throughout the customer journey.
Offer Engagement Options
Offer customers a wide range of ways to interact with you—anywhere, anytime.
Deliver a Superior Experience
Ensure that your customer-centric contact center employees exceed customer expectations.
Give personalized answers
Give the only right answer with a best-in-class knowledge management system or automated one-on-one consultations.
Automate processes and interactions.
Predict, enhance, and enhance the customer experience with automation and data intelligence.
Companies need to offer the latest automation and personalization technologies, as well as provide a single, holistic experience across all customer touchpoints to ensure a consistently high level of service.
Key Benefits of Cloud-Based Systems for Customer Service
Companies that rely on legacy customer service solutions are finding it increasingly difficult and expensive to keep up with customers' increasingly high demands for quick access across a growing number of platforms and channels. That's why many companies have already switched to cloud-based CRM platforms and other cloud-based solutions to serve their customers.
- Integration between all customer departments and devices for easy management.
- The scalability of cloud platforms that can grow as fast as a business.
- State-of-the-art capabilities and technologies without the need for constant capital investment.
- Low costs – you only pay for what you use.
- A deeper understanding of customer needs, preferences and behaviour allows us to continuously improve the services we provide.
- Mobility: The cloud enables mobile access to customer service systems through smartphones and other devices. This is a great way to ensure ease of access.
A particularly important benefit of integrated cloud platforms is the ability to provide feedback throughout the customer service process. For example, a company can add an automated feedback prompt ("thumbs up or down") before, during, or after a purchase. This feedback can then be analyzed to determine the level of customer satisfaction. This opens up new opportunities to quickly identify problems and improve all aspects of service.
The Future of Customer Service
The future of customer service is coming fast. Companies have new opportunities to stand out from the competition and increase both revenue and customer loyalty.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI is a system that mimics human intelligence, improving itself based on the information collected. For example, an e-commerce company can use an AI-enabled chatbot to use past customer interactions to improve the accuracy and efficiency of answering questions from future customers. Of the four new technologies, AI is expected to have the greatest impact on the future of customer service, allowing companies to provide more personalized offers and more predictable responses to resolve customer issues quickly.
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)
VR is a computer-generated interface, usually transmitted through a headset, which creates an interactive environment. AR is an interactive interface in which computer-generated information is superimposed on a real-world environment. Both systems allow customers to view and adapt products, participate in product demos and trainings, and experience new products and entertainment. VR and AR are expected to help businesses solve customer problems and stand out from the competition by offering a better customer experience.
Intelligent Voice Assistants
Intelligent voice assistants, including automated digital assistants offered on websites, perform tasks or provide services based on verbal commands. They make it easy and convenient for customers to ask questions, and they use advanced intelligence to direct customers to the products and offers they need, as well as alert them to changes in order status or invoice information. Intelligent voice assistants can help businesses resolve customer issues faster while keeping operational costs low and providing a differentiated customer experience.
Internet of Things (IoT) for customer service
IoT technologies connect online devices to each other. IoT sensors can be embedded in almost anything – smartphones, wearables, appliances, cars, manufacturing equipment, and more. These connections provide companies with real-time data and insights into customer behavior and preferences. For example, IoT sensors included in products can provide telemetry data that allows companies to continuously monitor product status and performance. If a product becomes ineffective, the company can initiate an interaction with the customer before they know about the problem. Such real-time monitoring of product performance, as well as ensuring product quality and the ability of customers to manage their products through a mobile app, are just a few of the customer service benefits that IoT provides.
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